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European markets are higher today with shares in London leading the region. The FTSE 100 is up 0.34% while France's CAC 40 is up 0.20% and Germany's DAX is up 0.09%.

. . . combined with upbeat Chinese data to lift emerging market and Asian shares to levels not seen in more than two years and global stocks to an all-time high today. Futures now look poised to continue their bullish run amid a quiet day of economic releases, while investors turn their attention to another slew of corporate earnings.

Oil was bouncing between gains and losses in early morning North American trade on Wednesday as investors looked ahead to official data on U.S. inventories and experts underlined the erratic movements in crude based on the slightest news.

LONDON (Reuters) - U.S. spices maker McCormick & Co Inc has won the battle to buy Reckitt Benckiser Group's North American food business, paying a higher than expected $4.2 billion to add extra seasonings and sauces.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Advocacy groups launched petitions and sent letters on Wednesday urging two of the biggest U.S. public pension funds to divest from an investment fund unless it stops paying one of President Donald Trump's companies to run a New York hotel.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google on Wednesday announced an overhaul of its search app on mobile phones to include a personalized feed of links about hobbies, travel, sports and other topics, a move that puts the search company into more direct competition with social networks such as Facebook.

DUBAI/DOHA (Reuters) - When is $300 billion not enough? That question is key to Qatar's future as some bankers and hedge funds speculate the super-rich state's vast financial reserves may not be liquid enough to defend its currency in the long term.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp said it resumed blocking access by Western Digital Corp to data at their memory chip joint venture, intensifying its dispute with the U.S. firm over the Japanese company's planned sale of the chip business.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Takata Corp's bankruptcy filing last month was meant to draw a line under the auto industry's biggest safety recall, but last week's announcement of more air bag inflator recalls suggests automakers could face fresh liabilities in the future.(For a graphic on air bag inflators click http://tmsnrt.rs/1JDZ4vq)

France's armed forces chief resigned on Wednesday, culminating a dramatic dispute with president Emmanuel Macron over defense budget cuts, in what Reuters called "an early test of the newly elected president's mettle and the tough presidential style he is cultivating." Last week, General Pierre de Villiers publicly complained about Macron's proposed 850 million cuts to the military's budget, telling a parliament committee he would not "let myself be fucked like that," adding that "I may be stupid, but I know when I am being had."

"In the current circumstances I see myself as no longer able to guarantee the robust defense force I believe is necessary to guarantee the protection of France and the French people, today and tomorrow, and to sustain the aims of our country," the 60-year-old De Villers said in a statement, noting he had tried to keep the armed forces fit for an ever more difficult task within the financial constraints imposed on it, but was no longer able to sustain that. He added that Macron had accepted his resignation.

Emmanuel Macron and Chief of the Defence Staff French Army General Pierre
de Villiers attend the Bastille Day military parade on July 14, 2017

The open conflict between the head of state and the chief of armed forces started earlier in July when France's Budget Minister Gerald Darmanin announced military budget cuts. ...

When social security was first implemented in the 1930's, America was a very different country. Especially in regards to demographics. The average life expectancy was roughly 18 years younger than it is now, and birth rates were a bit higher than they are now. By the 1950's, the fertility rate was twice as high as it is in the 21st century.

In other words, for the first few decades, social security seemed very sustainable. Most people would only live long enough to benefit from it for a few years, and there was an abundance of young workers who could pay into the system.

Those days are long gone. As birth rates plummet and people live longer, (which otherwise should be considered a positive development) social security's future is looking more and more bleak.

No matter how you slice it, it doesn't seem possible to keep social security funded. In fact, social security is going to start paying out more money than it receives in just a few short years. It may even be insolvent before the baby boomer generation dies off.

According to the Social Security Board of Trustees, the Old-Age and Survivors Insurance, and Disability Insurance ...

- "Time to position in gold is right now" - James Rickards
- Fed has hit the 'pause' button; No more rate hikes for foreseeable future
- Fed's theories "bear no relation to reality" and has "blundered by raising rates"
- Growth is weak, inflation is weak, retail sales and real incomes are weak
- Tight money, weak economy & stock bubble classic recipe for market crash
- Reduce allocations to stocks and reallocate to defensive assets such as gold
- "Gold will be the big w ...

Low quality production barely fit for YouTube, minimal content and viewers calling it a waste of time are surely descriptions that would lead a show with these problems to bad ratings and cancellation by a service like Netflix.

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